The senator resigned after a resolution that would have allowed students to vote on whether the senate became a direct democracy failed.
Ohio University's Student Senate will vote to fill an empty seat Wednesday after the Honors Tutorial College senator resigned last week.
Daniel Kington resigned following an hour-long direct democracy debate at last week’s meeting.
The body was divided on a resolution that would have allowed OU students to vote on a direct democracy model for senate. Immediately after senate failed to pass the resolution, several members, including Kington, left the meeting before it was adjourned.
Kington is the only member resigning.
“I am resigning because I view the Student Senate as a completely inadequate means of building student power on this campus,” Kington, a Post columnist, said in an email. “I ultimately don't give a shit whether the other people on Senate like me or not. That's not what it's about.”
Kington will give a resignation speech at Wednesday’s meeting.
“It’s unfortunate, but I can’t blame him necessarily,” Jared Ohnsman, senate’s vice president, said. “If it’s not what he believes then he shouldn’t be forced to stay here.”
The HTC position is a voting position elected by the student body each spring.
“In order to best fight for and with students who voted for me, I am resigning from the useless Student Senate to try to create genuine opportunities for such empowerment, through the Student Union,” Kington said in an email. “My hope is for Student Senate to become irrelevant as the Student Union seeks to build other avenues for student power and collective bargaining.”
Ohnsman is the primary sponsor of a resolution that seeks to fill the position with Jack Davies, who ran for the HTC position on the Phoenix ticket in the spring and is a Post columnist.
“From my knowledge of him before actually meeting him, he seems like a relatively engaged student,” Ohnsman said. “He’s active in different communities on campus, and that’s the biggest goal, trying to find someone who’s going to be committed to this position.”
Ohnsman said he hasn’t met Davies in person, but they have corresponded through email throughout the last week.
Other resolutions proposed for Wednesday’s meeting aim to add delegates to the Women’s and International Affairs commissions.
Senate will work during the next week to fill empty spots on various commissions that have been open all year.
“For us, it’s just trying to fill every seat as quick as we can because we don’t like having vacancies,” Ohnsman said. “We’d rather have more people discussing issues than just empty seats everywhere. It’s just more efficient to have more people.”
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